Weekly workouts – Race week!!

Unlike the negativity of last week (sorry about that!!), my week was on the up and up! I had a lot of mixed emotions about Saturday’s half marathon and how my body was going to hold up.  But it was also a week with an extra day off work so I just took advantage of it and was productive. All is well in my world and my faith in humanity has been restored (because I’ve got that runner’s high!! ✌🏼) 22.5 miles running, 12.5 miles biking.

Mon – Bootcamp!!  With the advent of very unseasonable temps, I decided to join my girl gang again and do a bootcamp workout.  It was good to see my friends again too. We started in the dark but it was almost sunrise when we left. I’ve missed that river view.

Tues – 3.5 miles.  I’ve been worrying about my hamstring pain a lot lately and backing off on the running.  Today felt mostly good and that was positive.  Running has been uncomfortable and, if we’re being honest, painful often lately.  A bummer 😢  But I’m doing my best to take care of it! I ran outside because it was 60 degrees!  No way I’m missing that.  I wore short sleeve shirt and shorts today, but it could have been a tank top!  I love being able to bust out my reflective shorts too.  

Night ride!  12.5 miles. OK, THIS might be our last night ride of the season (I know I’ve said that already…)  but seriously, when it’s 70 degrees at night, you can’t miss that either!  We did a long ride and I didn’t fall.  Woot!

Weds – 5 mile run.  I had Veterans day off, and it was a great day.  Started off with a run in the park with my friend.  She gave me an “ah ha” moment when she said she wasn’t running again until the race.  No running until Saturday?  I’ll give it a try.

Then I went to Starbucks and got another free drink – Peppermint Mocha Frappuccino – and this one was just a credit card reward drink so no stars used! The rest of the afternoon was spent visiting my parents, raking leaves and just catching up on chores.  The perfect mix of all the things on my day off. 

Thurs – 40 mins elliptical.  I did feel a little sore (hamstrings) even with this low impact workout, but a little less than normal. I did some strength training in the evening.  Missing my son though – he was too busy with homework tonight 🙁  And does cleaning the bathroom count as cross training?  If so, I crushed it.

Fri – Rest day!  I didn’t do a darn thing today other than stand around in the cold for a few hours.  We worked at packet pickup for the race and to my surprise it was held outside!  Luckily we had some jackets with us.  It was fun to see the runners. I love this years shirts too!

Sat – Race day!! 13.2 miles (long course!) 53rd annual Churchill’s Half Marathon. How exciting that this event has happened for 53 years now!! I’ll do a race recap later this week, but I’ll sum it up with adjectives: cold, sunny, surprising, and WONDERFUL!   A real live, in person race felt amazing.  The energy kept me going and my husband did too.  Finish time was 1:57.  6th out of 27 in my age group.  I’ll take it!

Interesting event also today – my daughter is participating in a study of youth runners and we spent a few hours at the university.  They tested her strength, flexibility and also mapped her motion (just like they do in the movies!).  We also enjoyed Starbucks – 43 more free drinks left!

Sun – Rest day!!  I was feeling a little sore when I woke up, but not too bad (nowhere near how terrible I felt after that 10K a few weeks ago!).  Surprisingly, my soreness was in my quads (those hills!) and not in my glutes/hammies so that is a huge win!! (also winning? Christmas sprinkles on this morning’s donuts!)

I did 25 mins of restorative yoga.  Yoga is not my jam and it felt like it lasted longer than my race yesterday LOL!  Not sure if I felt better afterwards, but I’m hoping it was good for me.

Need some more inspiration? I’m linking up with Deborah at Confessions of a Mother Runner and Kim from Running on the Fly for their Weekly Run Down. Check out all of the fun blogs there!